Discipline
by scarlthesnarl
Summary: Despite her confidence, Hiyori remains in the dark about what she is, and no one else seems to have any answers. She soon finds that she must grow if she wishes to remain so close to the Far Shore, and Iki Hiyori has never been one to turn down a challenge.
1. Hiyori's Big Night Out

Big thank you to ilarual and sandmancircus for your eyes on this thing.

The ayakashi have become more aggressive of late, hunting stray spirits with a relentlessness that Hiyori has never seen before. Sure, those monstrosities have always been malevolent, but never so outright vicious. Some have taken to directly attacking the Near Shore, made evident by the deep furrows in the concrete of the sidewalk, the police presence, and the lone figure covered in a red stained white sheet.

Hiyori steps carefully through the crime scene, taking measures to remain out of the emergency responders' way. She moves closer to the victim and lifts the sheet a few centimeters to get a look at them.

They were no older than Yukine, and their face is frozen in an expression of abject horror. Her stomach lurches; if the scattered papers and torn back pack were anything to go by, they had been making their way home from a study group or something. With shaking hands, she reaches out and closes their eyes gently before letting the sheet drape back over their face, murmuring a soft prayer for the spirit set adrift. With any luck, Bishamon or another god will find and name them, that is if they still exist. Due to the nature of the attack, she knows it is a feeble hope at best.

With one last glance around, she springs up to the oddly intact light post and then to the roof top. Yato and Yukine are out hunting for the night already, so who knew where they were. She considers going to fetch them when a sour, coppery scent wafts across her nose. It instantly instills a deep sense of revulsion, and her attention is drawn completely to it.

Be it instinct or duty, a compulsion she can't identify pulls her after the source. She follows the scent over the rooftops, down to the streets and alleys, and through the cover of the trees.

She finds herself overlooking a lit foot path winding around the pond that Yato, Yukine, and herself frequent. She crouches on the high, thin tree branch to survey the area. The scent that led her here was overpowering, forcing her to breath through her mouth lest the potency of it incapacitate her.

Hiyori's tail lashes the air, freely displaying her agitation. Something isn't right; she must be right on top of it, but it is nowhere in sight. Cool fingers of discomfort creep up her spine, but she does not move. It came here for a reason, and she'll be damned if she lets it get away. The dead eyes of its victim flash across her mind's eye, and she resolves to settle in and wait. Neither of them move for a long while, and Hiyori wonders absently if it has sensed her there. It's not likely, considering it's definitely savage enough to attack just about anything on sight.

Movement below snaps Hiyori out of her boredom. It isn't the colorful, ghastly form of the ayakashi, but that of a man. He strolls along leisurely, pausing and taking in the scenery every dozen or so paces. He is humming, and the jaunty tune drifts up for her to hear. To Hiyori, he looks for all the world a man completely at ease with himself. The sight of him is reassuring for all of five seconds.

She feels the shadows shift below her, and the ever recognizable three tone voice rasps, "Smells good. Smells. Good. _Smells good._ " One bright orange, clawed forelimb reaches out of the tree trunk below, followed by a horned head and long slithering body. So far as size went, it is middling, but the wicked twist of it horns and dripping maw lends to a terrific silhouette.

At first, she expects the guy to continue on his merry way quite oblivious to the danger, but he stops, back ramrod straight at the sound. He turns towards them, his face paling as he lays eyes on the great beast weaving through the trees. It is then seeing his face full on, that Hiyori recognizes her elder brother Masaomi.

The ayakashi steps into the light of the lanterns with no hint of aversion to it. "Smells good," it rasps again, lips and thick plaques of bone pulling back to reveal a wide gruesome smile of jagged teeth.

Masaomi's cry as he staggers back and falls is what urges her into action. Hiyori leaps in a high arc, spinning and building momentum as she comes down with a brutal axe kick to the phantom's head. Her attack blinds one of its six eyes, and it rears with a roar of fury. It shakes its head and glares at her through its five remaining eyes as she skids to a stop next to her brother.

"H-hiyori? What are you doing here? What is that thing?" Masaomi yelps as Hiyori hauls him to his feet. Her hand stays gripped around his wrist while she eyes her foe.

The ayakashi winds up to charge them, cutting into her chance to respond. "This way!" Hiyori pulls them further down the path as fast as she can, Masaomi practically flying behind her. The monster is right on their tail and she redirects them abruptly across the bridge to the left. It overshoots the crossing by a couple dozen meters. While it searches around for them Hiyori turns to her brother.

"You have to get out of here, that ayakashi is going to kill you. It already got somebody else a few hours ago."

"Ayakashi? Like a spirit? How are you- we seeing it?"  
Hiyori winces and says, "I, well, it's a long story. Look you have to leave alright? I'll be right behind you once I fight it off-"

"What?" He shouts, "You're going to fight that thing? Are you mad? I thought you said it was dangerous." He is terrified to be sure but she can see the anger start to creep onto his face. He's nothing if not protective of her. It's then that he notices her cord whipping back and forth behind her and he gasps, "A tail…?"

The ayakashi has since corrected itself and is creeping over the bridge, determined to not make the same mistake in pursuit of its next meal. At the sight of their encroaching doom, Hiyori shoves Masaomi down the path she knows will lead him in the direction of Kofuku's place and insists, "Long story! Just go that way until you find a small food shop attached to a house. Ask for Kofuku-"  
"Who?"

"-tell them I sent you. Now go!" Hiryori wastes not another moment with her brother and turns to face the ayakashi. She hears him hesitate for a moment before he starts to run, shouting, "Hold on Hiyori! I'll get help!"

Seeing that part of its meal is getting away, the ayakashi tries to charge past her but she unleashes a war cry and sends it sprawling with a flying side kick to its ribs. It howls and swipes at her as it goes down, missing her by a hair's breadth as she flips just out of its range. It rolls to its feet and lunges after her, snapping jaws whizzing by over her head. She squeaks and dives out of the way when it tries to flop down and crush her. Coming to her feet, she leaps and comes down between its shoulders. The attack does nothing and it bucks violently to dislodge her. Hiyori loses her balance and bails, hopping down the handrail lining the pond to gain some distance and stopping to catch her breath.

Her form shakes with fatigue and her tail droops. This battle is more drawn out than any other she'd participated in, and certainly the only one where she's been completely on her own. She'd fought smaller ayakashi on her own with little trouble but nothing the size of a delivery truck, nor so naturally armored. Not one of her attacks after the first seems to have damaged it at all, and she is tiring alarmingly fast. She barely dodges the renewed attack of the monster reaching for her.

The ayakashi's claws come crashing through the post and rail she was perched on, and follows her in relentless pursuit. It is done playing around, having realized that she's less helpless than its usual prey. It doesn't give her another chance to bound away and rest. Her reactions become slower and slower until finally its jaws clamp around her right leg.

Hiyori screams as the teeth tear into her before it swings her right into the ground. Light flashes behind her eyelids and she lays on the ground dazed. Her wound and lower leg are immediately Blighted and the burning sensation creeps along her skin. Panic, pain, and disorientation blend into a paralyzing cocktail that pins her down. For the first time that night, it dawns on her that she is in way over her head.

"Smells good." The cold rush of air that is the ayakashi's breath wakes her from her daze enough for her to kick up with both of her legs with all the force she can muster from her position flat on the ground. Its jaw is slammed closed with the force of the blow catching it under its chin.

It howls in rage and bats her through an undamaged section of handrail and into the shallows of the pond. Hiyori cannot right herself by the time it is upon her, pinning her to the bottom with a massive foreclaw.

The water hits the back of her throat and rushes up her nose as she fights valiantly to bring her face to the surface of the water for a breath. She can't even tell how far away the surface is through the murk of the kicked up silt. All she can see is the faint lights of the distant street lamps. Her racing thoughts slow bit by bit, coherency fleeing the scene.

The last thing Hiyori feels before she passes out is the weight of the ayakashi being jerked off her chest and a strong pair of hands pulling her back into the light.


	2. Stop Letting Hiyori Get into Bar Fights

Okay so big thanks to auspiciousleader and ilarual on this one for the eyes.

* * *

"I don't get it," Yukine grumbles, "Since when have ayakashi been this hostile? I mean yeah, they've always been a pain but I've never seen them go after humans like this."

Yato hums in response taking in the scene before them. The god and shinki are watching the body of a woman get carted away. The ayakashi responsible had been slain quickly, but the damage had been wrought. They hadn't been fast enough to save her, but her small child survived thanks to Yukine's quick and skillful placement of a borderline.

"Yato? Is this new?"

"I'm not sure," Yato shrugs and leads Yukine away, "I've never paid close enough attention." It had been kind of hard to care about lesser forces of chaos when he used to be the incarnation of violence against humans for a long as he had. Their job here is done. Lingering around while they have more ground to cover before the night is done is fairly pointless. Doesn't mean the encounter didn't leave a bitter taste in his mouth, though. He summons Sekki to his hand, and they take their leave of the area, the only ayakashi left are of the small and relatively placid variety.

Yato traverses the city along the powerlines, scanning each zone carefully and moving on if nothing crops up. Something always cropped up.

He's about to call it a night and head back to Kofuku's when he spots Bishamon in full battle loadout atop a building, Kuraha resting at her side and Aiha's bright plates gleaming in the reflected street lights. She'd noticed them first and beckons them over when they make eye contact. She nods when she greets him, voice somewhat terse, "Yato."

"Bishamon," Yato settles himself against the railing lining the roof top. "Seems like you've been busy. Not afraid to end up with nothing to do I take it?"

"I could ask the same of you." Bishamon quirks a brow at him, "Kazuma counted about eleven kills independent of us tonight."

Yato murmurs for Yukine to revert and corrects her, "Twelve. Half of those were right after another, like they were attracted there. Never seen anything like it really."

Bishamon hums and runs her hand through Kuraha's mane. "I've noticed something similar. It's like sharks to chum, but ayakashi are not usually drawn to the sight of a kill." The solemn tone of her voice captures his full attention when she adds, "They've been attacking humans directly; I found an entire family slaughtered in their home not two hours ago." Bishamon's face twists in righteous fury, her hand stilling and tightening against Kuraha's fur. Her piercing eyes flick to them. "You've run into the same thing yes?"

They nod.

Yukine whispers, "Yato wasn't sure, but… is this new? Has this ever happened before?"

"Not recently, and not quite like this. I've seen their activity rise and fall over the ages but… I don't think this is part of the normal ebb and flow."

A flash indicating the destruction of an ayakashi interrupts any other question or discussion. Yato spins on his heel and peers in the direction of it.

"Anyone else you know out hunting tonight?" Yato hums.

"Apart from you? No."

"I'm not sensing anything," Kazuma offers. "If there is another god about, they're laying low."

Yato's phone goes off a beat later. Out of habit, Yato flicks it open and starts his trademark greeting. However before he can finish, Masaomi's voice shouts, gasping and near hysterical, "-yori, Hiyori is in trouble! It came out of nowhere and- and-"

"Whoa slow down! What's wrong with Hiyori?"

"She's fighting a giant thing! I think she called it an ayakashi. Please Yato, it's huge and it's going to kill her if you don't do something!" Masaomi's voice pleads through the phone's speaker, loud enough for all of them to hear.

"Where? Where is she?" Yato demands.

"The pond down by-"

"'Kay, meet you back there." The god snaps the phone closed and is leaping from the roof in the next second, calling Sekki to his hands. They disappear in a flash of blue light mid leap. He can feel Yukine buzz with terrible anticipation and worry as they land on the other side of the city. Has Father finally decided to make his move and get rid of her? Yato's grip tightens around his blades. He had better not.

There is not a being in sight. The sidewalk and handrails along one side of the pond are completely demolished.

"HIYORI!" Yato calls out. He and Yukine wait a few moments, ears straining for her response. He tries again, "Hiyori!" Still no answer. The air is inexplicably rank with savagery and it spurs the mounting worry in his breast.

Kuraha lands nearby with Bishamon astride him and snarls in surprise. He immediately begins pawing at his muzzle.

"Kuraha?" Bishamon slides off of his back to check him.

"Sorry my lady. This whole place smells wrong, like a wound full of puss." He shakes himself out from head to tail and growls, "I'm surprised you can't smell it too. Give me a moment."

"When you're ready, try to see if you can track Hiyori, if you would," Bishamon bids. Kuraha bows and stalks around the scene trying to catch Hiyori's scent. The war goddess refers to the rest of her shinki, "The rest of you, pair up and look around. Keep a tight formation, we don't know if whatever attacked her is still here. Revert."

"Yes, my lady!" Her regalia chorus before splitting off to help Kuraha look. After asking Yato, Yukine joins the others, falling into step with Yugiha the greatsword.

"The ayakashi responsible is probably already vanquished if that flash was anything to go by," Kazuma says, having stayed at Bishamon's side.

"Maybe. I'm not willing to bet on the area being safe though. Not with the abnormal behavior of the ayakashi lately."

"Well that and we don't know what killed it," Yato says as he kneels into the rubble. He plucks one long splinter from the ground and rolls it between his thumb and forefinger. His keen eyes rove about, trying to divine just what happened here. "Whatever it is, it's probably still around."

"Hiyori could have killed it, could she not?" Bishamon asks. "After all, she has shown herself to be a fairly competent participant in our world, for a living human that is."

Yato hesitates for a moment before answering, "I… I'm not sure. She's never tried to before. Fight them? Yes, but not destroy. Whatever was here was… powerful. The aura of a weak ayakashi doesn't linger this long once it's been killed or driven off."

"So what, do you think that something just came through, killed it, and just left? Then what happened to Hiyori?"

Yato tosses the splinter aside as he stands and shares a grave look with the war goddess. The possibility of death was very probable, but neither can dare suggest it aloud. Reading the air between them, Kazuma cannot help but sigh. None of them are strangers to the touch of a shinigami.

A staccato, hacking cry from the path leading away from the pond breaks the tension. A terror-stricken Masaomi launches himself from the darkness towards the gods and shinki. A pair of small, sickly-yellow ayakashi are not far from his heels, baying for his blood in their horrifying three-tone voices.

The shinkis' reaction is almost immediate; Kuraha, the closest of the lot, leaps on one of them with a teeth rattling roar and tears its throat away. A pair of borderline slashes from Yukine and Kazuma slice deep and banish the other. The others return to Bishamon's side immediately, poised and ready to jump to the defense.

Yato helps Masaomi up from where he'd fallen. The young man is wheezing and trying to catch his breath, his face red with exertion. He coughs and jokes without humor, "Can't a guy take an evening walk in the park anymore? Thanks for the save." His wind returned, Masaomi searches the faces of the small crowd he finds himself in. He face falls when he doesn't find his sister's, "Yato… Where is Hiyori?" He looks to him, brown eyes pleading, "Where is my little sister?"

Yatos mouth runs dry, and he can see Yukine wince over Masaomi's shoulder. "We don't know."

"What?"

"When we arrived, no one was here. Not even the ayakashi," Yato tells him, clamping down hard on the shake trying to creep into his voice.

Masaomi wavers on his feet and whispers, "Is she..?"

Yato's voice stops, but Bishamon takes over, "We're not sure about that either. We have been trying to track her down. Our efforts have been," her face twitches slightly from its usual no-nonsense mask, "ineffective. Whichever ayakashi attacked her, it's either dead or gone."

The human's voice carries a tremor as he asks, "Wouldn't there be a body? If she'd been killed?"

"Not if she was in her spirit form."

"Not here anyway," Yato corrects her with a frown.

Masaomi's head whips between the two gods, confounded. "Spirit form? What? Does this have something to do with her having a tail?"

"Well that answers that question," Yukine pipes up, the gears in his head turning.

"Huh?"

"Hiyori has a tendency to… um, fall out of her body. You might have heard that she just randomly falls asleep. That's what's happening when she does." Yato scratches the back of his head. Why hadn't Hiyori ever explained this to her brother?

Kinuha, Bishamon's whip, pounds her fist into her palm and blurts, "Ah! That's it. She's got a body right? Find her body and we find her, or at the very least we'll figure out if she's still alive. Hell, she might've returned to it, right?"

Yato perks up with the suggestion, "Yeah, yeah, you're right! When was the last time any of us saw her? Without a tail?" Yato tacks on for the benefit of Masaomi and the shinki less familiar with her.

"She was taking a nap when I left the house a few hours ago. I think she might still be there," Masaomi says, the hope granted by Kinuha's suggestion lending him some strength. He takes his phone out of his pocket and announces, "Someone else should be home by now. Give me a second and I'll call them."

The lot of them gather around Masaomi when he places the call to the Iki household. No one says a word when his mother answers the phone. He cuts to the chase and asks their mother, "Mom, I'm looking for Hiyori but she's not answering her phone. Is she still in her room? I think she was taking a nap when I left."

"Ah, alright dear, I'll have a look. Give me a moment." The sound of shuffling around can be heard through the speakers. Her voice is too light, too unconcerned when she finally says, "Oh it looks like she's not here. She probably stepped out for a walk, dear."

Masaomi gulps and responds with some excuse or another to end the call, but the others are too stricken to spare a word among them. No sign of her soul, her body is missing, and absolutely no way to find either. The prospect that Hiyori is dead is agonising, but this is infinitely worse.

Masaomi rounds on Yato and snarls, thrusting his finger into his face, "You! This is your fault!"

Yato jerks as if he'd struck him, eyes wide for a moment. Yukine growls under his breath as his side and takes a step towards Hiyori's brother. Yato stops him with a hand and exclaims, "What? How is this my fault? How is Hiyori missing my doing?"

"She wouldn't be around this stuff if you weren't involved. What made you think that letting her fight… Demons and evil spirits and whatever else it is that you do was a good idea? How can you claim to care about her and-"

Yato levels a hard gaze at Masaomi. He can't quite suppress the flinch the concentrated look of a god can draw from the unwary.

The god's voice is clipped, "You should know better than I that Hiyori does what she wants, with or without anyone's blessing, least of all mine. Don't you think I tried the whole 'You should go back to being normal' thing? She wants no part of that, and quite frankly neither do I."

"But-"

"Yato is right," Bishamon steps in, attempting to head off the argument early. Tensions are high and nothing good can come from Masaomi provoking Yato. "You can't keep Hiyori out of a fight if she's decided to be a part of it. Trust me, we've all tried. It never works."

The mortal's eyes dart between the gods and shinki; each one nods in turn to confirm Bishamon's claim. That his little sister is so deeply involved with gods is staggering. Their regard for her is obvious, and he wonders briefly how she'd managed to hide such monumental happenings from himself and the rest of the family.

"Why not give her phone another try? Maybe she's back to her body," Kazuma suggests carefully. If nothing else, getting them to focus on the task of finding Hiyori will keep them from each other's throats.

Still nothing but Hiyori's cheerful voice announcing that she can't get to the phone at the moment and to leave a message meets her brother's attempts. While he keeps trying, Bishamon takes Yato, Yukine and Kazuma aside.

"Look, we can't stand here and keep dithering about. Kazuma and I are going to head to the Mortality Bureau, they should have her status on record." Her frown is sympathetic as she adds, "At least then we'll know. I'll have my regalia keep an eye out for her if they're here on earth."

Yato nods his gratitude and steps back.

Bishamon calls upon her shinki one by one before leaving in a flash of light. Once they're gone, Yukine turns to his master and murmurs, "Hey Yato… Who do we know who has ayakashi in their pocket and a motive to get rid of Hiyori?"

Yato cocks his head to the side in thought and asks, "You really think he's involved?"

"As far as I figure, it's the only lead we have."

"Hmmm alright. Let's deal with Masaomi first."

With the way things are tonight, the older Iki is likely only to get hurt if he stays out looking for Hiyori. Yato tells him as much and insists that he take shelter until dawn at least. The god leaves no room for argument and escorts him to Kofuku's.

* * *

Yato and Yukine find Fujisaki later that night at the library Hiyori and her classmates favor for research and group work. Oddly enough, he's easy to find in this instance. They approach his solitary desk with determination tempered by caution.

Fujisaki leans back in his chair and smiles that damn smile. Everything about the expression infuriates him, but Yato swallows his anger and takes a half step towards him. "I said. Where. Is. Hiyori?"

His father cards his fingers together behind his head and he drawls, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I've been here in the library all night. Shall I go fetch my classmates to confirm my alibi or are you so daft that you're going to continue this farce of an investigation?"

"We all know you don't need to leave anywhere to screw with people. Hiyori was attacked by a phantom, and you have her bag. You're _lying_ ," Yukine growls. He looks ready to pounce on the older boy.

Yato's gaze snaps to under the table where indeed Hiyori's bag sits innocuously next to his father's. His gut clenches at the sight. Mizuchi is also suspiciously nowhere in eyeshot either. The circumstantial evidence is damning.

"Oh, this? I found it after she left. I was going to turn it in at the lost and found before I head out. A shame if it was left out and stolen wouldn't you agree?"

" _Liar_ ," Yukine hisses, his knuckles white with the effort taken to not deck his stupid smug face.

"You're the one who's been killing people," Yato says. It's not a question.

Fujisaki's brow quirks and his grin widens at the accusation, "I've only been… helping things along. My thralls are very effective at that. However if you're referring to the deaths over the past few days, I don't deal in direct attacks on humans. It's too easy and not nearly as interesting." He drops his hands onto the table and shrugs, "If she is missing, it is not through my doing. I've had nothing to do with your precious Hiyori for weeks."

Yato stops Yukine from retorting. They are chasing shadows pursuing this line of questioning further and he knows it. He asks, "If you've been here then you must have seen where she went."

He must be feeling generous, bored of the conversation, or both because Fujisaki replies with, "That lazy girl was asleep on the other side of those shelves, then just got up and left without a word about an hour 's it. Now leave me to my studies."

"Why you…" Yukine starts at him again, but pulls up short and swipes Hiyori's bag from under the table, grabbing Yato by the cuff and turning on his heel to stalk out.

His father's voice calls after them, "If you're going to be so stupid as to attach yourself to something as fragile as a human girl, you should do better than a piss-poor job of protecting it."

Once outside Yukine spits angrily, "That son of a bitch… He knows. He freaking knows where she is." The young shinki clutches Hiyori's bag to his chest as if he could summon her to their side with it and the right spell. It's the first outward show of how deeply his fear over this entire situation affects him.

Yato casts one glance over his shoulder back into the library then leads Yukine away. "I don't think he's lying. Not this time at least."

"What? Yato, he's been more than happy to lie to us before," Yukine is completely baffled at Yato's assertion. Surely, he hasn't forgotten that Fujisaki is quite easily the scum of the earth.

"Yes," Yato draws the syllable out thoughtlessly, "but if he knew, he would have gloated. There's no way that if he knew if she's dead that he'd keep that quiet." His eyes slide shut. Up until this moment, all Hiyori had to survive was the ayakashi. But if Father knows that she's out there and quite possibly defenseless… Her chances for survival just dipped into the single digits, and he curses himself for a fool having essentially doomed her. If he had more energy left, Yato would be far more expressive with his level of alarm, but as it is, the dread settles into a cold veneer on his bones.

Yukine pales when he comes to the same realization and says, his voice small, "We have to find her first. She… she can't be gone. Yato, we can't let her down now."

Yato swallows hard and grits his teeth, "Damn right. Not if we can help it. Let's bring her home."


	3. Hiyori Learns That Hangovers Suck

Looks like y'all are getting a double whammy update because I have a hard time writing in a linear fashion. Thanks to lunar-resonance, auspiciousleader, and ilarual for the eyes.

* * *

The first thing that Hiyori notices as she drifts back into consciousness is the awful taste in her mouth and the pounding behind her eyes. She can tell there is light, but how bright and from what source escapes her. The curiosity about her whereabouts wins out over her desire to protect her retinas, so she opens her eyes with some reluctance.

The unfamiliar room she finds herself in is old, closer in style to that of her ancestral home than any modern building, but well taken care of so far as she can see. Everything is lit by the soft light of the moon. Her head feels like it weighs ten times more than normal, but she tries to sit up anyway. The bone deep ache she'd somehow failed to notice that occupies her upper back and left shoulder flares, demanding her acknowledgement and compliance. She hisses and pushes herself up the rest of the way with her good arm in a show of defiance. She moves too quickly though, and in her haste, her head spins violently with vertigo, summoning a fresh wave of nausea in its wake.

Hiyori stays still while the sensation takes its course. Once it fades into a more bearable intensity, she goes about taking a mental stock of her body and injuries, flexing fingers and toes- Oh. She flings the blanket off and inspects her right leg. The pain suggests muscular injury but the wound is wrapped in clean white bandages. She smoothes her fingers over them; the lay of the gauze is neat and professional, set by a steady hand.

After a long moment, she realizes that hers is not the only futon on the floor. Another patient perhaps? One look at their face stomps that assumption. It's none other than her own body. How does her caretaker have her body too? She wracks her brain for the events leading to her being here. She remembers working at the library at first. The work had been dull so she left her body behind for a quick stroll. There was a crime scene-

The memory of the victim's face slams to the forefront of her mind then flashes by, followed in much faster succession by the events thereafter. Tracking the ayakashi, her rescue of Masaomi, the fight...She shudders as she recalls the hazy sensation of drowning, the very thought of being underwater kicking up her heart rate with a spike of foreign fear. Even the darkness picks at the edges of her courage like an aphid on a flower.

The moonlight is a powerful ward though, and the silvery glow beats the fear back. A wisp of the summer breeze flows around her like a gentle caress. The whole of this place feels comforting and safe, like the home of an old friend. Hiyori's emotions calm until they are as placid as the waters of the reflecting pool in the center of the courtyard.

Creaking boards alert her to another presence. A man in priestly garb stands to the side of the door with a tray of unidentifiable objects. The shadows play heavy on his face but she can make out the deep lines of age that rake acrossed it.

"I see the shinigami saw fit to leave you be." He strides into the room and sinks to his knees at her side, setting the tray down. "You are very lucky. The ayakashi you were fighting was virulent. If it had not killed you, the Blight it carried surely would have, fast acting as it was." He has yet to look up at her while he works with the jars of herbs and poultices he brought with him.

Hiyori watches him prepare a cup of strong, dark tea. She wrinkles her nose at the smell and asks, "Where am I?"

Her host and presumed rescuer does not answer immediately and finishes the final touches to the cup first. He hands it to her and says, "You are in a shrine of Tsukuyomi, child. I am its curator, Nobuo. Be sure to drink all of that, it'll help with the pain and dizziness."

Hiyori nods politely and sips at her tea, making a face at the powerful herbal taste and overwhelming bitterness. She coughs then downs the rest of it in one go.

They sit in silence for a while. Hiyori feels questions rise and fall in her head but lending words to and voicing them is difficult. Nobuo she notes is serene, patiently waiting for her to speak. His calm regard makes it easy for her to find her voice once more.

"You're the one who saved me aren't you?"

He nods, "That I am. It was hard not to notice the battle." The first trace of mirth, or any emotion for that matter, flits across his face, "You fought with great courage, if a bit lacking in technique and skill. I will say this, it has been a long time since I've met an ikiryou, let alone one with such a fire in their soul."

Hiyori starts,"W-what did you call me?" The word ikiryou strikes a chord deep down and resonates through her, as if she should know what that means.

"Ah that's right, it would seem the meaning of the word has been lost to most over the years." Nobuo pauses and runs his thumb and forefinger along his jaw, then continues, "I called you an ikiryou. When you are outside of your body, that is what you are; a spirit of a living person set loose. The means by which it happens differ but by the looks of things your body is nowhere near death so that can be eliminated as a possibility."

Hiyori sits there in absolute shock. If the gods have no idea what she is, how can she trust the word of this man? She asks carefully, "And you're sure that I'm an ikiryou? How? Not even Tenjin-sama-" She slaps her hand over her mouth as the god's name slips her lips.

"Mmmm be at peace child. I know you're in touch with the gods. It's in your scent, and as I said, your good health makes it unsurprising that the cause of your condition has so much to do with beings of the Far Shore. You're hardly the first to have this come upon them. I myself was one such person."

"Really?" Hiyori whispers, hardly believing her ears, "What do you mean by 'was'? Were you cured somehow?" She doesn't have any idea how to feel about this new possibility. It's been a long time since she last thought about being returned to normal and at this point she's not sure she wants that at all.

Nobuo shakes his bald head and says, "No, nothing like that. I can still touch the additional abilities of an ikiryou, but my days of ejecting myself from my body are long over."

"You can control when you umm… fall out of your body?" Well controlling her supernaturally imposed narcolepsy wouldn't be too bad. Despite getting better at dropping her body at will, she's yet to learn how to prevent it when necessary.

"It takes a lot of practice to get it under your power but yes. If you wish, I can teach you how to do that, more if you so choose."

Hiyori doesn't even hesitate for a moment. She bows her head and requests, "I would be grateful to learn more about this. Please take me on as your student."

"As you wish. Once you've fully recovered we can begin, but until then you should return to your home and rest."

At the mention of home, her thoughts come crashing to a stop. Crap. How long has she been gone? Is Masaomi okay? Gods, her parents must be worried sick. Worry sets in as Yato and Yukine cross her mind; the two of them almost certainly know that she's missing… The incident with Bishamon comes to mind and forces a shudder from her frame. Hopefully they've done nothing rash to find her. She chokes, "How long have I been here?"

"This would be the third night. I am sorry, I would have woken you sooner, but your Blight only subsided earlier this evening. Sacred water or no, it was difficult to purify."

"I need to go," Hiyori makes to stand up. She doesn't make it far and falls back with a cry when her leg can't support her. "Hngh, if I don't…"

Nobuo halts her second attempt to get up. "Stop. You'll only hurt yourself more. Return to your body, and you'll find that you can walk. Your spirit will be injured for a little while, but your physical form will only be a little sore and tired until it heals. That said, take it easy for a few days and if you fall out of your body don't move around." He guides her gently, "Now, relax child and let yourself drift…"

Hiyori lets her eyes slide shut and concentrates on returning to her body. She can feel herself fall. When her eyes flutter open, she's staring at the ceiling and the pain is gone for the most part. She sits up with relative ease and spots Nobuo kneeling next to the other bed.

He offers her a smile and says, "Very good. You've been out of your body for a long time while you were healing, but it looks like you are already getting a grip on your control. At least we'll not have to start from scratch."

The shrine guardian helps her wobble to her feet, and once her muscles are reaclimated to being in use, he releases her. Hiyori takes a few practice steps out onto the porch. As he promised, her leg is stiff and her body aches all over, but her movement is unimpeded. On the horizon, the night sky is starting to retreat from the soft glow of the rising sun.

Turning to Nobuo, she bows and thanks him for everything. As urgent as she is to get home, the anticipation to return and learn more about being an ikiryou thrums under her skin. She makes to leave, but Nobuo gestures for her to wait.

"Before you go child, I would like to know the name of my future student."

Her face reddens with embarrassment at forgetting to introduce herself to her rescue. "Iki Hiyori," she rasps.

Nobuo smiles and nods, "Go safely then, Iki Hiyori. When you are ready, return here once the moon has risen. And Hiyori?"

"Hmm?"

"I request that you return on your own. I do not wish any god or human to set foot in this place until my master returns."

Hiyori studies him for a long moment, seeking evidence of ill-will. When she finds none she acquiesces, "As you wish, sensei." She then turns and leaves. By the time she returns to familiar streets, the sparse early morning light banishes the worst of the ayakashi from the world of mortals, and she makes it to the gate of her home completely unmolested.

Gathering her wits for what is sure to be long hours of questioning, Hiyori breathes deep, strides to the door, and calls out.


End file.
